A Chinese TV journalist who investigated a food safety scandal has been murdered.

Li Xiang, 30, was found with at least stab 10 stab wounds on Sunday night in China's Henan province. He died the following day.

His laptop was missing and police believe robbery was the likely motive.

However, the New York-based press watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), has called on the Chinese authorities to conduct a thorough inquiry into whether the motive was related to his journalism.

Local news reports and bloggers have linked Li's death to his reports on Luoyang TV on the illegal recycling of waste oil into cooking oil.

Following his reports, police in Henan and two other provinces recovered 100 tons of the carcinogenic oil - called "gutter oil" because of its origins - and arrested 32 people for selling it.

Food safety scandals are common in China, and journalists reporting on them frequently encounter harassment, according to CPJ research.